Charter teachers at this Detroit school faced no summer pay. Then donations poured in.

Teachers at Michigan Technical Academy, a Detroit charter school that closed in June, will get paid after all, according to the management company that ran the school.

The charter school closed at the end of the last school year because of financial and academic problems. Teachers learned in late July that there was no money to give them the summer pay they had earned.

Sajan George, the founder and CEO of Matchbook Learning — the management company — said in a letter to staff dated today that private donations would provide the money to pay the staff. The company sent the letter to the Free Press this morning.

"Even though Matchbook has not been paid itself in the past five months, we have come up with the money to make our employees whole," George said in the letter.

The school operated two campuses - one in Detroit and one in Redford. The pay problem affected who who work 10-month schedules but have their pay spread out over 12 months.

Both George and a representative of the school's authorizer said in July that the reason staff wouldn't get paid is because some of the school's creditors had ordered an acceleration of payments due on the school's loans.

That situation doesn't appear to have changed, though Matchbook officials had said in previous letters to staff they were trying to work with the lenders to allow teachers to be paid.

"We have been doing everything possible to get you the summer pay you're owed. We've had little success, as the bond holders have insisted on taking the July and August state aid payments entirely for themselves," George said in the letter.

He said funds have been made available "through the generosity of our supporters, to pay employees the summer pay they are due.

"Matchbook will continue to pursue the funding owed to us, but whether we receive it or not, we are using this funding from private sources to fulfill our commitment to you."

Staff will receive payment covering what was owed from July 30 to Aug. 15 today and tomorrow, with interest. Final payments will be made by the end of this week, George said..